(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing silver halide (color) photosensitive materials, in particular to a processing method which makes it possible to suppress turbidity due to the proliferation of bacteria and propagation of mold in a washing bath even when the processing is continuously conducted while substantially saving the amount of washing water and which provides an excellent processed photosensitive material. Moreover, the present invention also relates to an apparatus for effectively conducting such a processing method.
(2) Prior Art
Recently, it has been proposed to reduce the amount of washing water used in water washing and other processes for processing silver halide photosensitive materials, in view of environmental protection, exhaustion of water resources and enhanced economy. For example, one of such techniques for reducing the amount of washing water is proposed by S. R. Goldwasser in his article entitled "Water Flow Rates in Immersion-Washing of Motion Picture Film", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 64, 248-253 (1955) in which saving of the amount of washing water is achieved by employing a multistage washing system including the use of a plurality of washing tanks and countercurrently passing water therethrough. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,324 discloses another method comprising directly transferring bleached and fixed photosensitive materials to stabilization process without substantially passing them through washing process to save the amount of washing water. These methods have been adopted in different kinds of automatic processor as an effective means for water-saving.
However, if the water-saving is effected without implementing any other means, the retention time of water in a washing bath is substantially increased, which results in the proliferation of bacteria and in turn causes the formation of suspended matters and the increase in turbidity of washing water. Moreover, various molds are liable to proliferate.
The proliferation of bacteria and molds lower the quality of processed (color) photosensitive materials (hereunder simply referred to as "photosensitive material(s)", because the bacteria and molds deposit on the photosensitive materials. In addition, there remains an inevitable problem that mold and/or bacteria severely proliferate on the materials processed under such conditions during storage. Besides these problems, the proliferation of such microorganisms causes problems such that a circulating pumps and filters provided such baths as the washing and stabilizing baths become clogged within a very short time and that the water becomes rotten and give out a bad smell.
In order to solve such problems, many attempts have been made, for example, Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication No. 57-8542 proposes a method which comprises adding an antibacterial or antifungus agent such as isothiazolone type agents, benzoisothiazolone type agents to the washing bath and/or stabilizing bath.
The addition of such an antibacterial or antifungus agent is effective to solve the foregoing problems. However, the presence thereof in these baths may impair the safety of the working environment since they are heated in the drying process subsequent to the washing process and evaporate into the ambient atmosphere. Therefore, an extra investment is required for installing an exhaust system or the like. Furthermore, under the high temperature conditions which are likely to occur during summer which is quite favorable to the proliferation of bacteria and mold, the effectiveness of these antibacterial and/or antifungus agents to suppress the proliferation thereof is incomplete. In particular, if an automatic processor is stopped for a long time, for example, more than 2 days under such a high temperature condition favorable to the proliferation of microorganisms, conveying the liquid surfaces by floating bacteria and/or mold (hereunder referred to as "a bacterial floating matter") is not completely prevented. This bacterial floating matter formed while the automatic processor is stopped tends to adhere to the photosensitive materials if they are brought into contact with the film by, for instance, passing them through the washing bath or by again starting the automatic processor, which results., in additional serious troubles. Therefore, it is usually required to add antibacterial agents even when the automatic processor is out of operation in order to suppress the proliferation of bacteria and/or mold or the formation of bacterial floating matter, or prior to restarting the automatic processor any treatments such as the disposal of the water in the baths are required. Moreover, the use of these antibacterial agents causes side effects such that they make the processed photosensitive materials quite sticky and these materials are liable to adhere to one another or to other materials. Thus, there has not yet been proposed a processing method for silver halide photosensitive material, which can completely eliminate the foregoing problems